Research interest
The research activities of our group relate largely to the identification of modulators of inflammation in tissues following transient ischemia or hypoxia.[show][hide]

We have been working on the role of the urokinase receptor as well as the lectin-like domain of thrombomodulin with respect to their potential to reduce reperfusion injury while allowing for better regeneration of the damaged tissue. Our focus has been the heart but we are moving on to global ischemia with the ensuing systemic inflammatory response syndrome related to cardiac arrest. The group consists of 7 postdoctoral fellows, 8 technicians and several medical students. In the center of our activities we utilize clinically relevant mouse models of human diseases like myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest and resuscitation, cardiac hypertrophy and atherosclerosis. The animals are examined with respect to their functional recovery using echocardiography, PET, ECG, blood pressure measurements and parameters for organ function. We then characterize the cellular response to the lack of certain gene products immunohistochemically, biochemically and with a broad range of molecular biology techniques. We express molecules of interest as recombinant proteins and gene therapeutic approaches in the in vivo models and in in vitro assays of leukocyte adhesion with respect to their mechanism of action and their therapeutic potential.